Rohde & Schwarz (News - Alert), a global electronics company specializing in the fields of electronic test equipment, broadcasting, radiomonitoring, radiolocation and radiocommunication, announced that its first installation of controller working positions has completed site acceptance testing at DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH at the area control center in Langen. The technology is based on Rohde & Schwarz’s IP VCS-4G emergency radiocommunications system.
All communications between the controller working positions and the company’s Series4200 radios installed in numerous German radio stations are based on VoIP technology and run over the DFS IP network infrastructure. Due to what is the first fully IP-based radiocommunications system for DFS, communications are now seamless between each controller working position and the radios.
A total of 250 controller working positions will be installed in all four DFS Area Control Centers, located in the German cities of Langen, Munich, Bremen and Karlsruhe. 68 of these positions have achieved site acceptance. These installations are being performed as part of the DFS ErNoCen project for the renewal of the emergency radiocommunications system for the German Air Navigation Service Provider.
The VCS-4G includes a redundant management server pair, which enables close monitoring of controller working positions, radios, uninterruptible power supplies and other IT network components nationwide. The simple network management protocol (SNMP) was used to integrate it into the DFS umbrella monitoring system.
Following the EUROCAE ED-137B standard for VoIP technology, these systems are part of a rapidly evolving communications structure that shun the obsolete TDM standard. The VCS-4G employs a unique distributed architecture that allows it to be quite flexible and scalable, and is fully compliant with next-generation ATC requirements such as asset sharing, facility consolidation, geographical distribution, virtual center, and remote tower.
“For DFS, the emergency radiocommunications system is extremely important for air traffic safety,” said project leader Volker Taufmann. “Rohde & Schwarz, a company with a proven track record in delivering fully IP-based VCS systems, has done an outstanding job of working with our team to realize our specific requirements and needs. Rohde & Schwarz experts provided a realistic assessment of what is possible and relevant while always seeking to find the best possible solution for the customer.”
Edited by Alisen Downey